What It's Like to Dance for Top North Korean Officials

This article originally appeared on VICE Spain

Xavi Benaque García brought flamenco to North Korea last month. The 25-year old dancer—trained in traditional Spanish dances and classical ballet—was part of a delegation of ten Spanish dancers and musicians who participated in North Korea's April Spring Friendship Art Festival. That festival, which was held for the 30th consecutive year, brought together people from all over the world to perform different dances and music from their countries of origin. According to the North Korean Secretary of Culture, "the festival promotes friendship, solidarity, exchange and cooperation among countries and nations."

The Spanish show consisted of six different performances combining traditional dance, copla, and other kinds of Spanish folk music. According to Xavi, the North Korean audience was delighted. We spoke to him about what it's like to olé your way into North Korea.

VICE: How did you end up dancing in North Korea?
Xavi Benaque García: I'm a self-employed professional dancer, so I received a call from a friend who told me they were looking for people to go on tour in North Korea. The original idea came about when this old school artist manager called Tommy Lara met the North Korean ambassador in Madrid, two years ago. In their conversation, the ambassador brought up this festival where several countries are invited each year to showcase their culture and traditions—he suggested to Tommy that he bring over a delegation from Spain.

What went through your mind when you knew you were going to North Korea?
I first thought, 'He must have meant South Korea.' But when I realized he didn't, I thought it would be a unique opportunity to visit a country that's generally very difficult to get access to. When the departure day got closer, people kept asking me if I was really sure I wanted to go. That made me a little less emboldened than I was when I'd just agreed to go. You see things in the news about the tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world—I wasn't afraid but I was a little concerned. On the other hand: I was well aware that North Korea always tries to give off an image that it's the best country in the world. I was pretty sure they were going to treat us amazingly well so that we would only have good things to say coming home.

And was that the case?
Yeah, sure. They showed me around a relatively modern Pyongyang. There were a lot of big buildings—not very fancy ones, those typical communist constructions.

Did you have a guide?
We had a Spanish translator who was obviously very well-prepared. He spoke perfect Spanish but had never left the country. He accompanied us during our ten days in Korea, translated for us, and told us how to dress for whatever excursions we had that day.

So how did people respond to your show? Did they connect with Spanish culture?
The reception was amazing actually, yeah. In fact—we took home three gold medals. There were delegations from a lot of other countries like Russia, Cyprus, Belarus, France, and Italy. We had no idea it was supposed to be a competition though, at first. There's a committee that stops by all the theaters where the festival takes place and they decide who gets awarded the medals. It's a symbolic prize, of course. Just recognition. One of the acts we had prepared was called "Copillas del olé" and it had a very catchy chorus: "Y olé, con olé, olé y olá." Whenever we ran into other people from the festival in the hotel they sang that to us.

Did Kim Jong-un see you perform?
I never saw him. The secretary of culture did show up, and when he came in the theater everyone stood up and started applauding. We just followed suit—even though we had no idea who we were applauding, or why. They told us afterwards.

Did you notice a lot of security measures during your trip there?
You usually get an itinerary when you travel for these kinds of things—way in advance. Flight details, hotel addresses, that sort of things. For our trip to North Korea, everything was done at the last minute. We didn't know what day we were flying or where were staying until a few days before. Everything was pretty top secret. We gave them our passports and they gave us a visa. There was no interview or anything. We met the other delegations in Moscow, where we had flown via Paris.

Pyongyang has a very small but modern airport with two terminals. The procedure from there is basically the same as in other airports: You go through customs and collect your luggage. But then you go through luggage control, where they asked us to show the images we had on our mobile phones and electronic devices. We guessed that was to see if we had taken photos from the plane, but I'm not sure.

Were you able to then use your phone there?
There's no 3G in North Korea and there's no network coverage, so it quickly became a useless device. We had a small room where we could make phone calls for $2.60 a minute and to send emails for $3.39 per mail. We could take photos, but they told us where to take them and of what. So I saw what they wanted me to see. Everything was organized and prepared—they knew exactly how to answer every question we'd ask. I think bringing people into the country is a form of cultural contamination for them. They were very careful and cautious.